Hello all, With only a little bias, I'd like to nominate the Beanbag network's digital short film festival, "KickArse", as one of my favourites :-).
The Beanbag Centre program is an initiative of the Inspire Foundation, partnering with existing youth centres in disadvantaged urban areas, to ensure that young people who use the centres have access to high-quality ICTs, and training to help them to make great use of them. The primary objective of Beanbag is to provide access to ICTs, and help young people learn to use them, thereby assisting them to compete in the employment market, as well as to stay in touch with friends and family, and to continue to learn about the things that interest them. However, the program also aims to provide a compelling additional way of bringing young people into youth centres, and of maintaining young people's connection with them, as these centres are an important local source of assistance and support. Recognising that the mere presence of internet-connected PCs, plus training on basic functions such as word processing and email packages, was not sufficient to engage young people in the way we had envisaged, Beanbag launched its digital short film festival in March 2004. Following distribution of cameras and editing software, centre staff received short training sessions in film-making, from story-boarding through to camera techniques and editing. Throughout the year, centre staff worked with young people to create a short film at each centre. By the October closing date, eleven of the 15 centres had submitted films, with an additional two very close to completion. All had significant involvement from young people, ranging from four films which were entirely the work of young people, through to films which were primarily conceptualised and filmed by young people, but which were largely edited by staff. The films themselves were amazingly diverse: Six young people in outer Sydney made a documentary about their experiences with local mental health services; four young people in Perth made an animation about the dangers of too much tv and not enough exercise; indigenous students in Brisbane interviewed each other and local elders about life in their area; and students in an Adelaide alternative education program created an action/comedy about skating. Other films included a tour of Darwin with two local highschool students, a look at a Melbourne program for refugees from Sudan, and some more personal views of life in Hobart. Films were shown at each centre during a screening festival in November. At screenings, we conducted evaluation interviews with staff and young people. We heard that not only had the young people involved found the project an engaging and useful way to build skills and confidence with using ICTs, but also that for many of them, the opportunity to tell their own stories and see the finished product had been particularly powerful. In addition, we heard that staff consistently felt the project had helped them connect with the young people involved, and that many of these young people have gone on to play important roles within the centres, such as serving on advisory boards, volunteering to help coach participants in this year's festival, or simply spreading the word that the project is a great thing to be a part of. Following this evaluation, a bigger and better KA'05 has just kicked off. We now have 19 centres participating, where two-day training programs designed specifically for young people are currently in progress. We're aiming for a completion rate of 100%, and looking forward to the screening festival in November. Obviously happy to provide further detail - if you're interested, please feel free to contact me directly. All the best, Helen Dr Helen Lawson Williams Director, Research and Evaluation Inspire Foundation PO Box 1790 Rozelle NSW 2039 AUSTRALIA - Phone: +61 2 9818 3055 Mobile: +61 400 136 003 Fax: +61 2 9818 3855 Web: www.inspire.org.au Reach Out!: www.reachout.com.au Beanbag: www.beanbag.net.au ActNow: www.actnow.com.au -----Original Message----- From: Andy Carvin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:36 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Telecentres] what are your favorite telecentre initiatives? Hi everyone, As part of my efforts to identify interesting telecentre initiatives for the upcoming IDRC/EDC telecentres book, I'd like to ask a question for general discussion on the list: What are your favorite telecentre initiatives, and why? Do you see it as a model for other telecentre initiatives? Is it breaking new ground in some way? Is it successfully integrating learning, public health programs, e-government, media production, economic development activities, or other services into its mission? Or did it start with a development mission of its own and simply embrace telecentres as a strategy for accomplishing that mission? I'm very eager to engage members of the caucus in identifying interesting, creative telecentres around the world. The book will be an important opportunity for us to demonstrate the role of telecentres in global development, and how they're more than just simple public access points to the interest. So please post your thoughts to the list; I'd love to hear what you think. thanks, andy -- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [email protected] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [email protected] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
